--- description: In the latest twist to the Lance Armstrong doping saga, Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler, two men from Sacramento, Calif., have filed a class action... title: They Want Their Money Back: Class-Action Suit Filed Against Lance Armstrong Over Memoirs image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e6acdc73209c41/698a8f3cdb298761f027159a/lance.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Lance Armstrong, Disgraced Cyclist — and Author: New Lawsuit Targets Memoirs by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 25, 2013 5:52 PM CUT  This Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 photo provided by Harpo Studios Inc., shows talk-show host Oprah Winfrey interviewing cyclist Lance Armstrong during taping for the show "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive" in Austin, Texas. The two-part episode of "Oprah's Next Chapter" will air nationally Thursday and Friday, Jan. 17-18, 2013\. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc., George Burns) This Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 photo provided by Harpo Studios Inc., shows talk-show host Oprah Winfrey interviewing cyclist Lance Armstrong during taping for the show "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive" in Austin, Texas. The two-part episode of "Oprah's Next Chapter" will air nationally Thursday and Friday, Jan. 17-18, 2013\. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Harpo Studios, Inc., George Burns)AP—The Associated Press2013 by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 25, 2013 5:52 PM CUT In the latest twist to the Lance Armstrong doping saga, Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler, two men from Sacramento, Calif., have filed a class action against the cyclist and his publishers. According to [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/24/sport/lance-armstrong-book-lawsuit/ "undefined"), the suit accuses Armstrong of “fraud and false advertising” in relation to his books _It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life_ and _Every Second Counts_. The former is a 2001 best seller about Armstrong’s three-year path from testicular-cancer patient to Tour de France victor, and the latter is a 2003 follow-up about what came next, including doping accusations. Throughout the two books, he denies doping — and in great detail. In _Every Second Counts_, Armstrong writes: --- > “” --- Now, of course, Armstrong has told Oprah Winfrey and the world that he lied. And Stutzman and Wheeler, who bought Armstrong’s books thinking they were inspirational works of nonfiction, want their money back — and more (they’re asking for “refunds and other costs,” according to [_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/cycling/2013/01/23/lance-armstrong-lawsuit-class-action-book/1858619/ "undefined")_) —_ because, according to the suit, they might not have purchased the books if they knew Armstrong’s stories were fiction. (**MORE**: [Who Cares If Lance Armstrong Is Sorry?](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/01/17/who-cares-if-lance-armstrong-is-sorry/ "undefined")) So do the Californians stand a chance of winning? It’s hard to guess, based on past high-profile cases that targeted memoirs. A similar lawsuit made headlines in 2006 when James Frey, the author who fictionalized his addiction-recovery memoir _A Million Little Pieces_, was sued along with his publisher by readers in a few states. That case, however, provides little insight into what a judge might decide in the Armstrong affair: it was settled in an agreement by which the publisher would refund court fees, donate to charity and offer a refund to anyone who bought the book before news broke that the memoir was not entirely true, reported the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/arts/07frey.html "undefined"). Frey, however, did not have to admit that he did anything wrong. (And apparently not every reader felt defrauded: according to [the Smoking Gun](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/thousand-little-refunds "undefined"), 4 million people bought the book and only 1,345 asked for their money back as of about a year after the settlement was reached.) Another lawsuit over a fictionalized book, Greg Mortenson’s _Three Cups of Tea_, was [dismissed](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/05/01/three-cups-of-tea-fraud-racketeering-case-dismissed/ "undefined") last year. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7120012/lance-armstrong-disgraced-cyclist-and-author-new-lawsuit-targets-memoirs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7120012/lance-armstrong-disgraced-cyclist-and-author-new-lawsuit-targets-memoirs/"},"headline":"Lance Armstrong, Disgraced Cyclist — and Author: New Lawsuit Targets Memoirs","datePublished":"2013-01-25T17:52:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:57:15.929Z","description":"In the latest twist to the Lance Armstrong doping saga, Rob Stutzman and Jonathan Wheeler, two men from Sacramento, Calif., have filed a class action...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7120012/lance-armstrong-disgraced-cyclist-and-author-new-lawsuit-targets-memoirs/","keywords":["Memoir"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e6acdc73209c41/698a8f3cdb298761f027159a/lance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35e6acdc73209c41/698a8f3cdb298761f027159a/lance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey","caption":"Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey","creditText":"AP—The Associated Press2013","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7120012/lance-armstrong-disgraced-cyclist-and-author-new-lawsuit-targets-memoirs/","name":"Lance Armstrong, Disgraced Cyclist — and Author: New Lawsuit Targets Memoirs"}}]}] ```